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Vaaryn
, a vaaryn.]] Vaaryn are insect-like humanoids hailing from the planet Novos Solum, known for their small size and manufacturing of "magitech", a powerful and popular combination of their own magic and other races' space-age technology. They are occasionally nicknamed "fairies" by humans and other races due to their size and wings. Biology While superficially similar to humans, vaaryn are comparatively tiiiny, standing at an average of 130-150 mm / 5-6 inches tall, the females usually being slightly larger than the males. Their skin and hair share a colour of the cool spectrum such as green, blue or purple, with each Hive having their own unique shade. Other than that they stand out by having pointy ears and various insectoid features, including wings, antennae and compound eyes. Each vaaryn has two pairs of wings in a setup similar to that of a dragonfly, with wing shapes, much like skin colour, being different depending on the Hive. They lack noses, instead using their antennae to detect smells and certain vibrations in the air. Vaaryn are carnivorous and have sharp teeth that can secrete a venom that causes pain, swelling and, in large doses, paralysis. This venom was essential for taking down much larger targets in their hunting days, though in the modern era they've turned to agriculture and primarily subsist on insect livestock. Like many insects they can stick to surfaces using tiny hairs on their hands and feet, which once let them attach themselves to prey and keep the venom bites coming. Though vaaryn are sexually dimorphic, only a handful of them are fertile: the Queen, the Princesses and the Princes (see "Government"). Fertile females can easily be told apart from the rest by the large pod-like segments on their rears, similar to an insect's abdomen, in which new vaaryn are grown. They are born as hard, egg-like chrysalis, which later hatch into vaaryn children who grow into adulthood in a matter of months. The treatment of newborn chrysalis determines much of the knowledge and traits the young vaaryn have on emerging, allowing adults to prepare the next generation for what life in the Hive will hold. While vaaryn were once as physically frail as their size would imply, with the advent of magic they discovered ways to improve their strength and lifespan by placing certain enchantments on newborns during their chrysalis phase. In modern days, this treatment has been perfected and is now routinely applied to all chrysalis, pushing the race's abilities far beyond nature's limitations. A typical vaaryn is now much stronger and tougher than they appear, and they can live for up to 100 years, nearly five times longer than normal. Fertile specimens, such as Queens, live even longer. Society and culture Classes Vaaryn society is built around classes or jobs, which each individual being selected for a certain profession at birth, after which they only receive education that they will need as part of that class. Once their education is done, they are granted the appropriate title of their class, such as Builder, Soldier or Sorcerer: this title is the vaaryn equivalent of a family name, and members of the same class treat each other much like family. While it's common among vaaryn to increase your status by being promoted within your class, it's almost impossible change classes. This system has worked well in the past, but in modern times, partly due to exposure to other cultures, there is growing dissent among young vaaryn over the lack of freedom in their society. There are hundreds of minor classes, ever changing depending on what the Hive needs at the time, but in the end they are all divided into six main groups known as the Six of the Hive: *'Papu'ror' — Administrator Class — Deals with the fields of economics, trade, law and record keeping. The paperwork class. *'Tithemir' — Builder Class — Takes care of the Hive's infrastructure, such as construction, engineering and maintenance. *'Thæt'ror' — Cultural Class — Dedicated to preserving and spreading a Hive's unique culture through art, music, literature, etc. *'Kar'por' — Gatherer Class — Producers of raw materials, including food. Farmers, miners, magic extractors, etc. *'Sko'por' — Guardian Class — The protectors of the population. Not only includes emergency service classes like law enforcement and health care, but also the Hive's military force. *'Manteiar' — Sorcerer Class — While most other classes utilize practical magic in their work, the Sorcerer classes use theoretical magic. They are the ones who think up new spells and advance the arcane frontier. The vaaryn equivalent of scientists. Hives Like many insects, vaaryn reside in Hives (Paara), communities comparable to families, cities and nations all in one. Hives are ruled by the local Queen and her Council (see below). They are very tight-knit, and vaaryn are intensely loyal to their Hive and Queen, refusing to listen to any other authority. As a result, all Hives are very stubborn about working with each other, but nevertheless many alliances have sprung up for trade reasons and the like. Being exiled from your Hive and excommunicated is a terrible punishment in vaaryn society, as being alone is greatly traumatizing for a vaaryn and foreign Hives will never take in an outsider. Because all Queens have the same birth rate, usually giving birth to some 30 chrysalis every week, all Hives have roughly the same population count. The Hive's death rate versus the Queen's birth rate used to lead to an average of about 20 000 vaaryn per Hive, but after they learned how to extend their own lifespans, Hives grew accordingly and each one now sustains a population of around 100 000. Because of the near-perfect equilibrium of the birth vs death rate, it is absolutely disastrous to a Hive if a large portion of the population is lost, as the Queen is unable to make up for the lost lives. In the past, Hives were constructed mostly underground or in cliff faces, with only a few structures above ground being built from whatever material the inhabitants could find in the area. This changed after the vaaryn acquired magic and lost their fear of predators, allowing them to build mighty city-like Hives with masterfully crafted (tiny) skyscrapers. Vaaryn architecture varies depending on the particular Hive's history and location, but magic crystals and floating structures are a common sight. Government Each Hive is ruled autonomously by the Queen (Rekuul), a woman who is the mother of most, if not all, vaaryn in the Hive. She is assisted by the Royal Council, a parliament of sorts made up of the highest-ranking members of the Hive's most important classes, primarily the Six of the Hive. While the Queen enjoys the highest authority and utmost respect from her children, she usually gets involved with only the most important of decisions, and all minor matters are handled by the Council alone. As for succession, a few lucky chrysalis are selected by the Queen at birth and fed her royal jelly, causing them to grow into up into fertile vaaryn. The females are titled Princesses (Lo'rekuul) and taught in the ways of politics in preparation for succeeding their mother. Once the Queen grows too old to give birth or dies, the Hive will hold a popular election to select which Princess should succeed her. Before the election, the Princesses, who often have differing opinions on what changes need to be done for the Hive's well-being, compete to convince the populace that they're right choice. After one is elected, the remaining Princesses are left with several choices: stay as a member of the Council and possible successor if the new Queen dies before her own Princesses are born, travel to a Hive in need of Princesses or a Queen, or even join another Hive's Prince and establish a brand new Hive. Their male equivalents, naturally titled Princes (Kovi), have a different, shorter role. When a Hive's Queen requires a new mate, its allied Hives send them their best Prince as a possible suitor, and the Queen selects but one based on what positive attributes he can bring to the gene pool. He then dies shortly after mating, but it is nevertheless considered a great honor to pass your Hive's genes onto another Hive's generation of vaaryn. The Prince's genetic material lives on within the Queen for a long time, allowing her to keep giving birth over the span of several years before requiring a new mate. Unlike some other races, the vaaryn species as a whole has no real ruling body, since no Hive holds any authority over the others. This is mainly because all Hives have roughly the same population count, making it impossible for one to grow more influence than any other. When a species-wide decision has to be made, all Queens and their respective Councils will hold a conference to discuss the matter, though these conferences always go on for ages as Hives don't often agree. Language Vaaryn language is spoken at a very fast pace, and groups of vaaryn chatting at once often comes off as pure buzzing to outsiders. The language incorporates much body language involving their wings and antennae: for example, folding your wings down your back like a cape symbolizes confidence and dominance. Their names are written "backwards" with the surname placed before the given name. Because of own linguistics, vaaryn often refer to themselves in the third person when speaking in common galactic language. They also tend to call other people by the vaaryn title-name format, such as "Teacher Ariel" or "Deity Sekhmet". Religion Vaaryn religion is monotheistic and based around the Great Mother (Ara'rekuul), a creation goddess. When Hive Korbik discovered magic, they declared it to be a blessing from the Great Mother and a sign that they were destined to lead all vaaryn. After Korbik's destruction, the other vaaryn continued to see it as a blessing, but interpreted it differently: clearly the Great Mother had meant for her children to share her gift, but Korbik had taken it for their own selfish goals. All magic is now said to be dedicated to the Great Mother. Vaaryn and other races Being highly patriotic to their own Hive, most vaaryn view outsiders with suspicion and mistrust, especially so with salta ("giants"), a catch-all term for the common-sized races whose sheer size is enough to make even the bravest vaaryn uneasy. In spite of their misgivings, the vaaryn know the value of trade and are not averse to negotiating with other races, but giants who are allowed to approach their Hives are forced to go through a magical shrinking process first, reducing them to vaaryn size. Magic Vaaryn magic is symbol-based, making use of runes, glyphs and magic circles drawn or carved into objects to imbue them with mystical, reality-defying powers. Originally this was only used for inanimate objects such as tools, vehicles and weapons, but the vaaryn soon learned to tattoo magical symbols into their own skin, imbuing their very bodies with magic and allowing them to cast spells. In modern days, all vaaryn receive enchantment tattoos at their chrysalis stage to extend their physical power and lifespan, granting all modern vaaryn at least some magic proficiency. While all classes of vaaryn utilize magic in their daily lives, only the Sorcerer classes have the training to manipulate mystical energies into specific forms. These classes have larger amounts of magical tattoos than other vaaryn, often covering large portions of their bodies. Exactly how the vaaryn discovered the use of magic is unknown, the means lost to history, but they didn't always have it and they're certainly better off now. While magic serves as their answer to science, they eventually began importing modern technology from other race out of curiosity. They were able to successfully combine their magic glyphs with the borrowed technology to create magitech, a potent combination of vague concepts that few others have accomplished. In particular, the vaaryns' expertise lies in the microscopic elements of magitech—its equivalents of circuitry and microchips—which have proved very popular among other magic-users in the galaxy. This popularity has led to magitech becoming the vaaryns' main export and a staple of their society. History Age of Darkness Ancient vaaryn were low on the food chain, smart enough to form civilizations but not smart enough to make up for their physical weaknesses, and they mainly lived off scavenging. Their Hives consisted of holes in the ground and primitive lookout structures built of whatever material they could find, and they frequently had to defend themselves against larger predators. Advent of Magic and the Imperial War The status quo of the vaaryn changed the day Hive Korbik somehow discovered the secret to magic. With their newfound power, the formerly unimpressive Hive learned to improve their living standards and put an end to anything threatening them. It didn't take long for Korbik to become the most powerful Hive on the planet... and even less for power to corrupt. Soon enough, their Queen declared her intention to unite all vaaryn under the Korbik Empire and sent her troops to attack and conquer other Hives. Many early Hives fell to Korbik's sorcerer-soldiers, their Queens enslaved and forced to provide more workers and troops for the Empire. The remainders quickly realized they had to stand united against a common foe and formed the Ras'enn Alliance, resulting in the breakout of the Imperial War. The war between the larger Ras'enn Alliance and the more powerful Korbik Empire went on for years, until the Alliance ultimately managed to steal the enemy's well-kept secret to magic and use it for their own. With both numbers and magic on their side, they destroyed the Empire and ended their monopoly on magic. Magic Wars Following the Imperial War, the Ras'enn Alliance collapsed. With all vaaryn Hives having access to the power of magic, a cold war began, with several Hives eyeing each others territory and making plans to create empires of their own. This led to a series of smaller conflicts known as the Magic Wars, but because all Hives were now equally powerful, the battles went nowhere. Realizing they were accomplishing nothing, the Hive leaders initiated peace talks, eventually resulting in a treaty and agreement between all Hives to only use magic for the betterment of vaarynkind rather than warfare. Age of Growth With all Hives sharing their now unique forms of magic, vaaryn society as a whole went on to more or less perfect it, vastly improving their life standards. They became stronger, smarter and lived longer, the Hives grew in size and power, and their society reached a level of self-sustainment where they no longer had anything to fear. With everyone feeling content, progress then stalled for many years. Galactic Expansion Eventually, vaaryn were met by other races and introduced to modern technology, something they had never discovered themselves, magic having served as its equivalent instead. Curious, they experimented with combining the outsiders' devices with their own magic, culminating in the invention of what would become their trademark: magitech. Not only did this discovery lead to new developments within their own society, but their inventions proved popular amongst other races as well, leading to a new opportunity in the form of exports. They were off to a rough start, though, as each Hive attempted to get a slice of the cake, making the market an unorganized mess that only confused customers. The Hives agreed that they needed a single producer to represent vaaryn magitech to the galactic market. However, no single Hive was large enough to handle all the incoming orders, and any attempts at merging Hives with several Queens always leads to disorder and factionalism among the hotly territorial vaaryn, who inevitably come to blows over which Queen is the true ruler. The final decision was to make a brand new, experimental, multinational Hive without a Queen, with workers sent there from all other Hives, each group overseen by Council representatives from their home Hive. Named Hive Ras'enn after the old alliance, this production- and trade-oriented Hive quickly grew to become largest Hive on the planet. It is made up primarily of magitech factories and is one of the few vaaryn Hives where outsiders are allowed. Vaaryn can nowadays be found off-world as well, always in large groups. Some have even established Hives on other planets, including Aauu. Category:Species Category:Novos Solum